Make Me Burn: Fireborne, Book 2 (18 page)

When they got to West’s, she turned on her phone and listened to the message Brandon had left for her. He was checking in, letting her know he was there if she needed him. Not calling him back was harder than she ever thought it would be. She needed him tonight. Wanted his arms around her, to feel safe. Loved.

But after hearing his sexy, scratchy voice and then smiling at the way he said her name, she knew they would have to talk. About the murders. About Ram and the club, and Stacy. About the things they’d both been hiding from each other. One thing would lead to another and they would each say things they didn’t mean—and maybe some things they did. Then the few days off they were taking could turn into something more serious, more permanent, all because she wanted to hear his voice.

She wasn’t in the right head space for that right now. She couldn’t think about it. She had to turn the phone off to resist the temptation.

What did that say about their relationship?

West studied her intently while the others headed into the living room. “Ram wasn’t exaggerating, was he? About your boyfriend not liking him?”

She scowled. “No, he wasn’t. And sometimes Brandon can be a beast.”

“All men are beasts when the right woman comes along to drive us crazy,” West told her with a rueful smile. “I can’t say I blame him for wishing you weren’t friends with Ram. Especially after seeing you two together onstage. The chemistry between you was electrifying. Even us laid-back types could grow a jealous bone with that kind of material.”

“Preaching to the choir over here.” Greg came up behind her and rubbed her shoulders. “I like this guy, Aziza Jane. He can come to our secret fort anytime he wants. Though his definitely has the cooler toys.”

She laughed. “It does?”

Greg took her hand and turned her toward him, nodding. “Guy heaven.
Normal
guy heaven. Come and see.”

She took off her shoes and left them in the closet like everyone else had, and then followed Greg down the hall, sliding a little in her socks on the hardwood floors. They passed the stairs that she imagined would take them to the bedrooms and entered the living room, which was crammed with a weight set, a huge flat-screen television and every game system known to man.

Guy heaven.

Ram was making himself comfortable in a recliner that she had a feeling he’d claimed as his own long before she’d arrived. The table beside it held three separate game controllers and a remote control. Had her Jinn become a couch potato?

“I can’t imagine you playing video games,” she said as she watched him lean back.

“You can’t?” His grin was lazy. “You think we don’t have them where I come from? Let’s see, a scenario where I am following a character and watching over him, or
her
, guiding them in everything from fighting techniques to clothing to sexual conquests as they level up?” He licked his lips. “Sweet Aziza, we invented video games.”

Chiye, her eyes still swollen from crying for her friend, laughed at that. “West is the writer, but you wouldn’t know it with the prince over there, would you? Way he tells it, his people invented air.”

Aziza smirked at Ram. “He might have a little bit of an ego.”

His thick lashes almost concealed the bright emerald of his eyes. “Nothing about me can be described as little.”

His expression and the way he said that made Aziza shift and press her thighs together. She still hadn’t recovered—the voice in her head was screaming at her to kneel at his feet and beg for more. She wanted his kisses along her spine. His words…his whip. She even wanted that wretched evil stick.
 

Anything, if only someone would touch her.

“Enough of that now, children.” West tossed Aziza and Greg a ball of clothes. “Change out of your club gear and into something comfortable. Ram and Chiye, you two can fight over tonight’s movie if you like.”

Greg shook out the shirt and sweatpants that obviously belonged to West. “He’s bossier than I thought, Aziza. Maybe he doesn’t get secret-fort privileges.”

“He does.” She smiled at him as she headed upstairs in search of a bathroom first, the bag from Shev and her purse still clutched under her arm. He definitely did. West’s presence alone made her feel better. Less shaky. Like everything was going to be okay. It was a strange talent for such a sensual man to possess. West emanated serenity. When was the last time she’d felt that? When was the last time she‘d done
this
? It did seem normal. And normal had been a while.

An image of the stunning, bald Jinn man pounding his hips against his partner popped into her head. She hadn’t thought she’d enjoy watching so much. It reminded her of Brandon. How much he loved to take her that way. How the painful stretch only added to her pleasure as he growled like the beast he was and claimed her in the most primal of ways. Remembering how swiftly the Jinn’s hips had been moving, she couldn’t help wondering, not for the first time, how what she did with Brandon would feel with Ram.

She didn’t want normal. She didn’t want to sit and watch a movie while Ram sat across the room in a recliner and Brandon wasn’t beside her. Her mind was restless. Her skin was aching to be touched. To be held and bitten.

Aziza stuck her tongue out at herself in the mirror. “Too bad, you can’t have that tonight.”

She stripped off her outfit with swift efficiency and put on the oversized T-shirt covered in animated characters, along with the hip-hugging black sweatpants. She smiled at the lightheartedness of the outfit. Her reflection suddenly looked young, like an adolescent who didn’t have a care in the world and wasn’t at a stranger’s house, in subdrop with the potential to lose it at any minute.

She walked out of the bathroom and straight into Ram’s arms.

Aziza licked her lips, focusing on keeping her breathing even. “Weren’t you supposed to be arguing with Chiye?”

Ram shrugged. “I let her win. I have a soft spot for the girl. She’s sweet and she’s had a hard night. Besides, I’ve already gotten my prize. Remember?”

“Oh.” She remembered.

“Can we talk for a minute, you and I? About what happened between us?”

Aziza shifted uncomfortably. She didn’t want to dissect it. Didn’t want to talk. “I think we’re all up to speed on that, aren’t we? We had a scene together. We put on a hot show for the peeping masses, though from what I hear it was only a tease compared to your usual. But it was enough to bond with the Kewpies. Mission accomplished.”

Ram moved closer, backing her against the wall. “Was that all it was, Aziza? A show? A mission? I know that’s what we told each other and ourselves, but I was up close and personal to the event. You responded to me perfectly and we were connected in a way I’ve never experienced, but then you left without allowing me to do my job.”

“Your job?”

He smiled as he brushed a strand of her hair off her forehead. “Taking care of you. Jinn rarely experience the emotional backlash humans do, but I find I quite enjoy the closeness they need and I hear I’m pretty good at the aftercuddling. I’d love your opinion.”

I’d love more than cuddling…and so would he.

Slammed by a new wave of need and desperation, Aziza pasted on a saucy smile and slid her hands around his hips to squeeze his ass. “You want me to sit on your lap and cry and tell you about my feelings? About how my abandonment issues are soothed by the dominant lash of your whip? That you’re the ‘Daddy’ I’ve been looking for? Or can we skip all that psychobabble and fuck? You know that’s where we’re heading.”

“No, Aziza.” He shook his head, watching her with an expression of concern. But he didn’t move away. “That isn’t where this is heading. Not tonight. I won’t take advantage of you in this state. I won’t be your regret.”

She huffed out a laugh. “That is rich, isn’t it? You had no problem taking advantage of me when I thought you were a dream. No problem taking advantage of my epically bad, wine-induced decision-making skills in the stables. But when I offer, when I need more satisfaction, you back away?”

She was truly messed up. How else could she explain her bipolar behavior? A minute ago she’d been wishing Brandon were here. Missing him and needing him to hold her. Now she was taunting Ram and offering him something that would ensure she’d lose the Enforcer forever.

You need Ram.

She needed therapy.
 

She tried to move past him. “Ignore me. It’s been a strange night and I need to tell you about it, but first I might need a drink or five.”

“I want to hear everything.” He stopped her with his hands on her hips. “How is your back feeling?”

Aziza instinctively pressed it harder against the wall, her eyes widening. “It feels fine.”

“Better than fine? Do you even feel the welts anymore?”

She frowned in confusion and he let her go back into the bathroom. Turning on the light, she faced away from the mirror, lifted her shirt up to her shoulders and glanced at the reflection. “What the hell?”

Ram leaned against the doorjamb and crossed his arms. “You were glowing, Aziza. Not in a way anyone else could notice, but I saw it. Different from the Niyr light. As if something rose up inside you and lingered right beneath your skin, loving the sensations it was experiencing. The lash of the whip. I’ve never seen anyone soar so high that easily, so it stands to reason you would have a harder fall. But it looks like what’s inside you took care of any lasting physical reminders.”

She’d felt it too. Something—not her—reveling in the power exchange. In pure sensation. And whatever it was had all but healed the marks she’d had only hours before. She’d liked those marks. Knowing they were there.

She frowned. So she could heal things she didn’t want to, like tattoos and whip marks, but not that woman she’d had to watch die. “Damn.”

And now she wanted to cry. What if she could have healed Stacy but her blood hadn’t been willing to show her how? What was happening to her?

You are more. You need more. Take it. Take it from him.

The voice was as powerful as an aphrodisiac. And it was right. She didn’t want to think. Aziza took her shirt off and dropped it on the bathroom floor, turning to Ram so he could see her bare breasts. “Where is your room?”

“Aziza, let me—”

“No. If you don’t tell me, I’ll get naked, find West’s room and wait for him on
his
bed.”

“Now that sounds like an interesting plan.” West’s voice sent Aziza’s hands up to cover her breasts in surprise. He was standing at the top of the stairs, looking straight into the bathroom. Straight at her.

Ram’s only reaction to West’s appearance was a smile. “Doesn’t it? I told you she had spirit.”

Blushing, Aziza glared at them. “If you were gentlemen you’d turn around.”

“No gentlemen allowed here.” Ram bent down to scoop up her shirt and her purse and bag. “West?”

West nodded and held up his hands. “I was just going to bed. I think Greg has Chiye well in hand and…” he looked at Aziza’s hands where they still hid her breasts from view, “…I believe you two need some time alone together to work this out.”

Maybe that was the last thing they needed, Aziza thought, panicking. She wasn’t sure what she’d be feeling from one moment to the next. Wasn’t sure why all her emotions were so heightened. She shouldn’t be left alone with Ram in this state, and hadn’t she just been thinking about how West made her feel centered? “You could join us.”

You said it.
She closed her eyes for one humiliated second.
You actually said it.

Ram’s green eyes narrowed as West moved closer to the bathroom door. Closer to her.

“Aziza Jane, I thank you for the offer,” West said. “It is, without doubt, the best one I’ve had in a very long while and the most tempting. But I have a feeling it isn’t what you need tonight. You have my word, I’ll remind you about it another time.”

Then he turned around and, with a nod at Ram, disappeared into one of the bedrooms. Ram moved closer to her and gripped her elbow firmly. “Another conquest, Aziza?” he asked softly. “Not that I mind. I’m not as possessive as your Enforcer. Jinn often share their lovers with their friends. In fact, I’m impressed. West is an intriguing man. Smart. Mysterious. Particular about his lovers. I wouldn’t mind sharing you with him.”

To hide the fact that her pulse was going crazy at the idea, Aziza rolled her eyes. “Of course you wouldn’t.”

He guided her to a room down the hall and took her inside, closing the door behind them. “I believe you said you wanted me to show you my room? Technically it’s just a guest room. My bedroom in Qaf is far more—”

“I saw Jinn couples watching us.” The words burst out unexpectedly as she stared at his king-sized bed. “They were”—Naked. Fucking.—“enjoying themselves in a club like Underbridge.”

He dropped her things and came up to cup her face, looking into her eyes. “So that’s what it was. I knew something happened while I was using the evil stick, knew I didn’t have your full attention at the end, despite my best efforts. You must have been lost, indeed, to have used that kind of power unconsciously. Describe them to me. What they were doing.”

“If I tell you we’ll have sex.” She wanted to desperately, but she couldn’t let it happen. She shouldn’t. If she had to describe the carnal acts she’d witnessed while he was kneeling behind her and making her come, she would beg him to take her. Beg him to do all the things she’d seen. To let her ride him.